How Long Until Spam-A-Lot Blames 'Foreign' Bicyclists From Another Planet...

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...And/Or Montreal?

The Vision dominated Vancouver City Council has voted to make the dedicated downtown bike lanes permanent.

The GStraight's Yolande Cole has the story:

Vancouver city council voted unanimously today (June 13) to make the separated bike lanes on Dunsmuir and Hornby streets permanent.

The vote followed presentations from supporters of the bike lanes and concerns from some local businesses...

So.

How long before the boys still pining for Sam Sullivan's fjord's (with and/or without scraps thrown their way from ye olde warchest) start hollering about the massive waste of money b/w rants about the evils and moral terpitude of the super-secret, foreign-backed Birkenstockerati who walk amongst us.

Of course, you probably won't hear them call out the Downtown Business Bund who now wish to 'mitigate' things by installing dedicated right hand vehicle turning lanes at a cost that is pretty much the same as what the entire stretch of bike lanes cost in the first place.

Ms. Cole has that part of the story too:

...The head of the Downtown Business Improvement Association, Charles Gauthier, asked council to spend $2.5 million on implementing right-turn lanes from Dunsmuir Street onto Seymour and Hornby Streets.

He cited a study released by the city last summer, which rated the business impact of the bike lanes as moderate, and recommended the enactment of mitigation strategies.

“I think a year has gone by and there were a number of mitigation strategies that could be implemented and haven’t been to the fullest extent,” Gauthier told reporters following the vote.

“At the end of the day, I think…we’ll probably see some businesses that aren’t able to adapt and as their leases expire, won’t renew their spaces."

Councillors said implementing the right-turn lanes could pose a risk to pedestrian safety...

And, oh ya, in case you missed it (or didn't hear it from the good Mr. Gauthier and friends), sticking in the right turn lanes would also shrink the size of the sidewalks considerably:

...The city’s transportation director Jerry Dobrovolny noted installing the right-turn lanes would reduce the sidewalk width to the minimum of 1.8 metres from three metres...


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And it will never cease to amaze me how many folks can work themselves up into a lather when a progressive(ish) government actually follows through, for real, on their upfront campaign promises, even if this one does go all the way back into ancient times (eg. 2008).
And what's this with having Mr. Dobrovolny talk about stuff he's actually an expert at rather than forcing him to be the City's PR point person on things he is not....So expert at, I mean....Gosh, don't you miss the old days when the man of many hats and his loyal assistant ran everything?
And did you ever wonder what the former loyal assistant, who later became the boss in the salad days of Sammy and his Spam Boys is up to these days?....Stay-tuned.....(And yes, it does have something to do with Premier Photo-Op and certain 'legacies')...

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